LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) – Building work has finished on
the London Olympic Park’s last remaining major stadium, the
water polo arena, a month before a test event, Games organisers
said on Monday.
The temporary venue, with its silver-coloured wrap and
inflatable roof, was built by a firm forced to move from its
previous site in Stratford, east London, to make way for the
Olympic Park.
The wedge-shaped 5,000-seat stadium, costing about 25
million pounds ($40 million), was made from recyclable plastic,
and is the last major venue to be built on the site by the
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the body responsible for
infrastructure.
It will stage the men’s and women’s water polo competitions
before being taken down and the parts reused elsewhere in the
country.
“The unique sloping roof design makes it instantly
recognisable and, as with all our venues, huge efforts have gone
into both sustainability and ensuring we don’t build venues that
have no use after the Games,” the ODA’s Chief Executive Dennis
Hone, said in statement.
The venue, next to the striking aquatics centre in the south
of the Olympic Park, has a lightweight roof made of air-inflated
recycled PVC cushions which will provide extra insulation and
reduce condensation, organisers said.
The only remaining stadium work to be carried out on the
park, by the London organising committee (LOCOG), is seating at
the outdoor hockey arena.
ES Group, one of dozens of firms relocated from the 500-acre
former industrial site when London was awarded the Games in
2005, built the main structure.
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Alison Wildey)
